Royal Pains: "Pilot"Review

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USA ushers in another great character drama.

By James Chamberlin

Advance Review: USA Network has changed its image quite a bit in the last 5-10 years with a steady flow of original series. With shows like Monk, PSYCH, and Burn Notice on its list of original series, USA is no longer just another syndication outlet. After watching the pilot, I'm confident they can add Royal Pains to their all-star lineup of great character dramas.

As a longtime viewer of House, I was a little hesitant about watching another medical drama, which have become more and more popular thanks to the success of House and ER. Thankfully, Royal Pains is much more character-driven than medicine-driven.

Royal Pains stars Mark Feuerstein as Hank Lawson, a medical doctor from New York who's fired when a billionaire hospital donor died on his watch. Hank's boss only saw dollar signs and didn't take into account the fact that Hank also saved a young man the same day.

Paulo Costanzo plays Hank's brother, Evan, who comes to Hank's rescue and drags him kicking and screaming to the Hamptons. Some of these scenes are a lot of fun to watch. Paulo and Mark have great chemistry together. Their characters are very different, with Evan always looking to live life to the fullest, while Hank a bit more reserved, but at the same time not someone who thinks he's better than everyone else. It's balanced out quite nicely.

Hank's medical degree comes in handy when a girl collapses at a party and is nearly killed by the home owner's concierge doctor. Hank steps in and properly addresses the problem and before he knows it, he's all the rage in the Hamptons. Everyone who's anyone wants him to be their doctor.

Being a doctor-on-demand, Hank obviously doesn't have a full arsenal of medical equipment on hand. MRI machines don't exactly fit in your back pocket quite yet. Hank, however, manages to cope with whatever is around him. In a move which was reminiscent of something I would have seen Richard Dean Anderson do on MacGyver, Hank helps a kid out with a series of household items such as a pen, sandwich baggie, bottle of vodka, sharp knife, and just a little bit of duct tape for good measure.

There were very few things I don't care for in the pilot, but if I had to pick out just one, it would be the way Hank describes everything he is doing to a patient. It's like he's going off some sort of checklist that he has next to him and I find it to be rather distracting. The dialogue is entirely unnecessary.

Paulo and Mark aren't alone on this show. Mark's character, Hank, has a love interest in the attractive local hospital administrator, who is played by Jill Flint. Also, Hank's perky and helpful physician's assistant is played by Reshma Shetty. Jill and Reshma both round out the cast nicely.

After some apprehension about what Royal Pains would turn out to be, I can honestly say that this is going to join the likes of Burn Notice on my must-watch summer list of television. The chemistry displayed in the pilot is surprisingly good.